Training a computer to read body language sounds like a cool idea, with a lot of interesting possible uses. Unfortunately, the one that keeps being mentioned over and over is selling you something. Yup. While I think of a computer reading body language and imagine a modern Eliza program, the inventors can only think of the advantage this might give them in getting our money out of our pockets. Sad.

So what would I do with this technology? I’m glad you asked. Oh, you didn’t ask? Well, you’re still reading, so I guess that means you’ll humor me.

How about a theme-music peripheral for chat clients? It could sense the emotional state of your chat partner, and play an appropriate soundtrack to enhance your chat experience! They laugh, you hear a comedy rimshot… or an audience laughing. They get upset, you hear a soap-opera pipe organ. They yawn, you hear a lullaby. That’d be cool, no?

How about an automated interrogation-bot for use in military detention centers? It could be programmed to ask the questions you want answered over and over. It could read the prisoner’s face and use the Reid technique to determine deceit. And it could detect when they were falling asleep, and at those times it could administer a small shock to wake the prisoner up.

Or, think of the uses in research? You could supply a program with a few hundred images and use the face-reader to determine how people react to seeing various images. That could also have huge relevance to psychiatry… sort of a modernized Rorschach test.

All three of these ideas would make far more sense than using the technology to try to determine when would be a good time to show you an advertisement. Christ. Who comes up with this crap?

Tags: computers, technology